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✔️= Critic's Pick
✔️ Bane’s World w/Michael Seyer/Inner Wave Inner Wave and Bane’s World have a killer new collaborative single out (“Whoa”), and we’re waiting to see what the live iteration of that looks like when the Southern California avant-pop acts come together in Ybor City. The dreamy, jazz-pop on Bane’s World’s album Drowsy is still life-giving two years after the effort’s release, and sandwiched between the two bands is Gardena, California songwriter Michael Seyer, whose 2018 album (Bad Bonez) is a woozy, drum-machine-driven piece peppered with just enough saxophone (LP highlight “Waiting For You”) and weird bass (“Motions,” “Untitled Bonez”) to keep you packing bowls in your bedroom all night long. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
De La Ghetto He no longer has his Arcángel to lean on, but Rafael Castillo (better known as De La Ghetto and formerly a part of latin-pop duo Arcángel & De La Ghetto) is doing just fine. Listen to “Todo El Amor” — a new single with Maluma & Wisin — to hear why. The radio-ready reggaeton jam is pure romantico and ready to send the late-night crowd into a frenzy when the San Juan-based superstar stops into a Carrollwood area nightclub. (Whiskey North, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Forrest Hoffar Forrest Hoffar got to be the goofy one when he joined Mark Etherington (Mountain Holler), J.T. Brown (The Groves) and Shawn Kyle (The Beauvilles, AMFMS, Florida Kilos) for a Bay area songwriter supergroup set last month, and this show finds the Wauchula native all by his lonesome and supporting his 2017 debut full-length, The Temporary Nature of Things. The 10-track effort was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and wears all of the Southern, rural charm of his hometown while also interjecting Hoffar’s special brand of humor into a sound that’s influenced by Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Dave Matthews and Dawes. (Independent Bar, St.Petersburg) INFO
KEBH? WTF?
What should we call this Tampa Bay supergroup of songwriters?
✔️ Rod Hamdallah Most fans will notice Rod Hamdallah from his work with the Legendary Shack Shakers and Dirt Daubers, but the Atlanta songwriter who has been haunting his city’s bars since before he could drink brings his solo stuff to Seminole Heights for a free-to-attend, late-night set of sinewy blues, punk and rock that’ll get the blood of Black Keys and Hanni El Khatib fans boiling in the best way. This show is part of a 10-date tour of the Southeast, and if you’re wondering, then know that Rod says that his last name is pronounced “ham-dah-lah….la-la-la.” (Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa) INFO
Selwyn Birchwood w/Nalani & Josh Mama’s Batch’s Nalani Rothrock breaks away from her band and links up with Josh Lamkin to open for a Bay area bluesman who caught the attention of Alligator records and Rolling Stone magazine ages ago. Rothrock’s brand of funked-out soul should be enough to get fans out to the Skipperdome early. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Gloria West & The Gents w/Anthony Castellano/James Suggs/Paul Gavin Zydeco Brew Werks has been one of the best places to catch a World Cup game (shrimp and grits, surprisingly, go well with soccer). This show is part of the new Ybor City brewery’s live music experiment and finds powerhouse Bay area vocalist Gloria Gents being flanked by three of the region’s best jazz players, including trumpeter James Suggs. (Zydeco Brew Werks, Ybor City) INFO
The Odyssey Quartet: Suite for the End of the Earth Release Show The Odyssey Quartet’s avant-garde, instrumental narrative of sci-fi space travel comes to life at the hands of bassist Bill Folwell and saxophonist David Pate, who’ve played with famed American saxophonists Albert Ayler and Sam Rivers. Rex Shepherd handles guitar at this release show, which falls on what would’ve been Ayler’s 82nd birthday. (Studio@620, St. Petersburg) INFO
STAY BLEST
St. Petersburg electro-pop duo Blestian releases “U Can’t Convince Me I’m Wrong”
✔️ Blestian w/Infinite Third/Gushing/more Electro-pop duo Blestian just released an album in June, but the St. Petersburg-based group has already rolled out four new songs including the Kratom single — which features to meditative sides (“Mitragyna Speciosa” and “1-800-C-U-L8R”) — in the meantime. Blestian brings all of that extra-ness to DIY warehouse space Paper Crane for a Friday the 13th show alongside another St. Petersburg sonic spelunker, Gushing, which is playing in support of its own lush, plinked-out electro-rock album, Chasing Infinity. (Paper Crane, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Teen Agers w/Inkwell/At the Drive-Thru/Debt Neglector/Mighty At the Drive-Thru — an At the Drive-In cover band featuring members of Wolf-Face — gets a reprise at this free St. Petersburg show, but the highlight on the five-act bill is a set from Inkwell (an Orlando band, without Davey Pierce this time) playing its first shows in nine years. The occasion is the album release for another pop-punk Orlando act — Teen Agers — which is giving the giving birth to a new LP, When We Were, at this very show. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
Dean Johanesen Love the idea of a Prohibition-era flapper party, but dread the thought of doing it at your own home? Dean Johanesen — a long-running, throwback Bay area songwriter — has you covered with this show alongside his band the 24 Hour Men. (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Blood on the Turntables w/Kennedy Jones/Monk/Michael Kean/Dose/Bootz N Catz/High5ive/Nate Verde/KC Gilmore/Tommy Rize Halfway to Halloween parties can’t hold a candle to the long-running Blood on the Turntables throwdown that is popping up at The Kennedy this weekend. Organized by the Czar crew that brings you the Hallucination Before Christmas, Friday’s party finds versatile Los Angeles producer Kennedy Jones manning the inside along with local legend Monk (Rabbit In The Moon), Tampa’s own Michael Kean and Orlando producer Dose. Terrorvision — basically blood-soaked visuals and video mapping — will be deployed throughout and an outside stage features a host of local favorites, too. Hockey masks, fetish gear and your best '80s Camp Crystal Lake counselor cosplay are encouraged. (The Kennedy, Tampa) INFO
STAY WITH HIM
Sam Smith shares new single, announces July 13 date at Amalie Area in Tampa
✔️ Sam Smith w/CAM Anyone worried about the state of Sam Smith’s voice after a 2015 vocal surgery should look no further than the nearly two-dozen-song setlists that the 26-year-old crooner has been giving fans on his 39-date tour of North American arenas. The hits are there (“Stay With Me,” “I’m Not the Only One”), but so are sad-boy deep cuts all delivered without the opulence of most big pop tours hitting Amalie Arena this summer. Smith, instead, will lean on his sterling vocal and songs from his sophomore album (The Thrill Of It All, released last year), which is more of a journal than a book of radio anthems. “I wasn’t trying to make a big pop record when I made this,” Smith told Billboard. “I was actually just trying to make something personal and like a diary.” Rising Nashville country singer CAM — who wrote “Palace” from Thrill — opens the show. (Amalie Arena, Tampa) INFO
See even more of the Tampa Bay live music lineup by visting cltampa.com/musicweek every Thursday morning.
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ALSO PLAYING
Rock
Rock and Roll Hi-Fives w/Love Songs For Junkies/Atomic Treehouse (Cage Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
From Hostage to Hero (Orbit 19, Holiday) INFO
BrutalGore Productions presents: A Ritualistic Event (Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
Disasterpiece (Smokin’ 19, St. Petersburg) INFO
Neptune Lounge Presents A Toast to Tarpon Party w/Black Honkeys(The Neptune Lounge, Tarpon Springs) INFO
July 13,-14 Savi Fernandez Band (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
DJ
DJ Paradise/DJ Maus (SubCentral at Iberian Rooster, St. Petersburg) INFO
Pop
DBMK w/TBA (Transitions Art Gallery at The Skatepark of Tampa, Tampa) INFO
Funk
Rev. Barry and the Funk (Ringside Cafe, St. Petersburg) INFO
Singer-songwriter
Tyler Costanzo (c.1949 Florida Beer Garden, St. Petersburg) INFO
Classical/Chorale
Rebecca Penney Piano Festival Ambassador Performance Series: Solo Recital (Music Center at St. Petersburg College Gibbs Campus, St. Petersburg) INFO
Blues
Betty Fox Band (3 Daughters Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
Tribute/Cover
Last Exit (Two Buks, Clearwater) INFO
Greg Billings Band (Buckets Grill & Tap, Tampa) INFO
EDM
Ghastly (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
Busto w/Diego/Bonnie Hrz (The Dungeon at The Castle, Ybor City) INFO
This article appears in Jul 12-19, 2018.